[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 130 (Tuesday, September 25, 2012)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1655]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                101 YEARS OF THE REPUBLIC OF CHINA (ROC)

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. ANN MARIE BUERKLE

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                      Tuesday, September 25, 2012

  Ms. BUERKLE. Mr. Speaker, October 10 marks 101 years of the Republic 
of China, ROC, that now exists on Taiwan.
  Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou was inaugurated for a second and last 
time on Sunday, May 20. Taiwan limits its presidents to two terms, as 
do we. But in his already more than four years since first taking 
office, President Ma has fundamentally altered the dynamic of Taiwan's 
economic relations with mainland China and by extension, relations with 
the United States and the rest of the world.
  Fresh off his first inauguration in 2008, President Ma launched the 
first regular non-stop flights across the Taiwan Strait since China's 
Civil War ended in 1949. These flights, now as many as 558 a week, have 
made life much easier for Taiwanese working and doing business on the 
mainland. It's in turn also made life much easier for Americans 
crossing the Taiwan Strait--be it for work or for pleasure.
  But most significantly, in 2010, Taiwan entered into its Economic and 
Cooperation Framework Agreement, ECFA, with mainland China that 
eliminated tariffs on 16 percent of Taiwan exports to the mainland. Now 
that President Ma was reelected with a fresh mandate this past January, 
more tariff eliminations under ECFA will follow. There will also be 
further service sector openings in both directions. Most importantly, 
ECFA, as does President Ma's other cross-Strait trade and investment 
relaxations, reintegrates Taiwan into Asia's economic supply chain, 
allowing Taiwan producers to supply global customers in mainland China 
directly.
  The spending power of the millions of mainland Chinese tourists who 
have visited Taiwan since 2008 has also boosted the island's economy, 
as well as exposed those same tourists to Taiwan's pluralistic, 
democratic system. Having now experienced Taiwan's elections firsthand, 
some mainlanders will demand accountability of their leaders back home 
as Taiwanese do theirs. Taiwan's elections can serve as an example and 
milestone for ethnic Chinese worldwide that these universal political 
freedoms are not somehow incongruous with culture as some mainland 
autocrats have alleged.
  I thus urge my colleagues, on this 101st anniversary of the ROC, to 
congratulate Taiwan on this century-plus milestone and to applaud its 
recent trade, investment, and travel openings to neighboring mainland 
China. It suits Taiwan's economic interests as well as our own.

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